Does your child show disgust for many foods? Does he/she want to eat only mashed potatoes? It may be the sensory disorder. Real handicap in everyday life, this disease can appear from the first year of life, especially at the beginning of the food diversification. We take stock.
What is the sensory disorder?
The sensory disorder is a disease related to sensory hypersensitivity, making it difficult or impossible to take food by mouth. It entails, in particular, a very strong sensitivity to smells, tastes, or even textures. Variable in intensity, it can manifest in several ways, according to each child: insufficient and slow food intake, nausea with or without vomiting, swallowing disorders, lack of pleasure during meals, hypersensitivity of the mouth and lips, and refusal of new foods and/or containing pieces.
The causes of a sensory disorder
This disease is not a psychological disease. Although in terms of symptoms, it may be reminiscent of anorexia nervosa, it is not: sensory disorder is linked to hyper-reactivity genetic organs of taste and smell. Also, it is useless to force your little one to eat, that would serve only to make him vomit.
Feed your child differently
First of all, if you are worried that your child is suffering from a sensory disorder syndrome, go to your pediatrician immediately to discuss your doubts. He will know how to evaluate the situation and guide you.
If the diagnosis is confirmed and your child can not eat, artificial nutrition may be necessary. When these disorders of orality are likely to hinder the healthy development of weight and weight, it is indeed necessary to use the digestive or venous to feed.
Enteral nutrition, administered digestive, then involves introducing a nasogastric tube through the nose, down to the stomach. Another solution: gastrostomy, which aims to implant a probe in the stomach and through which the nutrients. In some cases, the diet is administered by the venous route. This is called parenteral nutrition.
Sessions at a speech therapist
In parallel, the follow-up by a speech therapist specialized in the treatment of these disorders is essential. It aims to restore food orality in children, to bring oral nutrition to constitute not a source of rejection and disgust but pleasure. The proposed activities are centered on the oro-facial sphere. They will help the child to invest his mouth and gradually engage in the weaning of his probe. In the vast majority of cases, the weaning of enteral nutrition is done in 6 to 8 months.